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Intronis prepares IT service providers and SMBs for protecting critical data from the risk of disaster

CHELMSFORD, MA – September 28, 2015 — /BackupReview.info/ — Intronis, Inc., a provider of world-class backup and data protection solutions for the IT channel, presents four tips to creating a comprehensive disaster preparedness plan to protect SMBs critical data as National Preparedness Month draws to a close. An effort sponsored by the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), National Preparedness Month encourages Americans to safeguard their homes, businesses, schools, and communities against disaster. Intronis is urging all of its partners to take stock of their customer’s critical data and ensure they have a solid plan in place, before a disaster of any kind strikes.

Research finds that small businesses are not currently doing enough to ensure the safety of their data:

According to The National Federation of Independent Business, 30 percent of small businesses will experience a natural disaster.

Ponemon Institute research shows that 62 percent of SMBs report that they don’t routinely back up their data.

A study from EMC Corporation finds that nearly three quarters of all businesses say they are not fully confident in their ability to recover after a disaster.

“These findings indicate that data loss can happen when least expected and small businesses are often not prepared for a data loss event including natural disaster, theft, fire, equipment failure, malware, or user error,” said Chris Crellin, vice president of product management, Intronis. “SMBs are particularly at risk for data loss because a large percentage of them do not put backup and disaster recovery solutions in place until after they’ve experienced a disaster. At Intronis, our goal is to encourage small businesses and IT service providers to be proactive about disaster planning.”

Intronis recommends that businesses protect their data from significant threats with the help of well-prepared and knowledgeable managed IT services providers (MSPs). It’s critical for businesses to take a proactive stance and invest the time and resources to stay protected long before facing a potential disaster. Intronis is working with its channel partners to advocate for preparedness among small businesses and other service providers alike.

Intronis surveyed their MSP Partners to find out what tips they have for small businesses regarding disaster preparedness.

These are the top four tips from Intronis Partners:

Tip #1: Plan ahead
Invest in preparedness now and understand the value of the time and money that will be saved down the road if your business is faced with a disaster. Determine what files and applications you need to back up: emails, client records, virtual machines, Point-of-Sale (POS) systems, etc.

“The best solution for disaster recovery is to think disaster before installation. Develop a comprehensive BCDR plan that takes into account how to recover or replicate each system. Be sure to document the plan and specify what will be recovered and how it will be recovered. Many businesses don’t survive the recovery after a disaster because there was no tested plan.” – Tom Vaughan, Director of IT at JBM Computer Consultants, Inc.

Tip #2: Understand types of data loss
It’s not just natural disasters that threaten small businesses. Major threats also include user error, malware, equipment failure, and other types of everyday threats.

“I tell each and every one of my clients that the reality is that it isn’t a matter of ‘if,’ but ‘when’ they will face a situation that can compromise all of their important data. We have been able to successfully protect our customers’ data from all kinds of scenarios, from a devastating building fire to traditional PC failures. These instances speak volumes about the importance of cloud-based backup and data protection.” – Pete Peterson, VP of Sales at Internet & Telephone

Tip #3: Do a test run
Once the plan is in place, be sure to educate employees on their involvement in the disaster recovery plan. Hold routine dry runs to test your plan and see what’s working and what areas of your plan might need improvement.

“We want to make sure our clients have a solid backup plan that includes both onsite and offsite. We perform a quarterly check-up that involves doing an actual restore of a portion of the files backed up to verify the integrity of the backup. This way, in the event that a client needs to restore, we know their data will be available with minimal downtime.” – Connie Arentson, Vice President at Heartland Technology Solutions

Tip #4: Invest in the right tools
Some small businesses don’t have all the resources necessary to support a disaster recovery plan. Those small businesses need to work with an IT service provider who can provide tools such as local and offsite backup, hosted servers and applications, remote monitoring, and on-site support.

“It is all about discovering what the acceptable level of risk is and working backward from there. This way any disaster ‘what if’ question can be answered with a yes or no. If these questions are placed in priority order and associated with a cost, you now have a formula to determine how much to spend to achieve the desired goals.” – Eric Janson, President at Parallel Edge, Inc.

For additional National Preparedness Month information, read the following Intronis blog posts about building your business case and setting up a disaster recovery plan. To learn more best practices, replay Intronis VP of Product Management Chris Crellin’s interview with Computer America from earlier this month.

To learn more about Intronis online, follow the channel-friendly cloud backup and recovery innovator on Twitter and LinkedIn.

About Intronis
Intronis provides world-class data protection solutions for small businesses, delivered exclusively through the IT channel. The Intronis ECHOplatform securely protects physical and virtual data with native support for physical imaging, VMware, Hyper-V, Exchange, and SQL, all through a re-brandable central management console that integrates with major RMM and PSA tools. With Intronis’ fixed-fee storage pricing per SMB account, IT service providers are able to rapidly grow revenue and scale profit. Through Intronis ECHOshare, channel partners can easily expand their IT services portfolio to include tightly integrated business-grade file sync and share. Learn more at www.intronis.com.